Evolutionary algorithm

An evolutionary algorithm is a way for a computer to solve a problem by copying natural selection. It starts with many random answers, scores each one, keeps the best, mixes and tweaks them, and repeats until the answers stop getting better. It's useful for problems with too many options to check one by one, like building a roster that suits forty people's availability, or planning delivery routes. Small businesses won't build one, but they may use tools that do. Some rostering and scheduling apps use similar methods under the hood. The answer it finds is usually good, not perfect, and it can't know rules you never gave it, so a person checks the result.